Restoration Hardware

This short email started it all:

“Hi Catherine,

I wear your “Believe” bracelet everyday! Last year I introduced a set of beliefs to our team we call the “Resto Rules”. They are embossed into a double wrap leather bracelet we gave to all of our leaders at our annual conference. I wear your Believe bracelet on the same wrist as a reminder to Believe in The Resto Rules, which are:

Vision is Everything

Love us or Leave us

This is Personal

There is No School for Cool

Fast is as Slow as We Go

I asked the team to reach out to you to see if there was an opportunity to work with you not only on the believe bracelets for our leaders, but possibly a line to sell in our stores and holiday catalog. They also showed me a “Carpe Diem” bracelet, which as you might know is how I sign my correspondence to the team!

I forwarded your note to Eri Chaya our Chief Creative Officer and Assumpta Curry Our Director of Graphics and Packaging who should be reaching out to you.

I would love to hear your ideas on how we might collaborate in the future!

Carpe Diem,

Gary”

Follow up a year later…Gary is still wearing his Believe bracelet, a constant reminder of his core values.

“Friedman, like most of his employees, wears a woven bracelet embossed with the word “BELIEVE.” When I visited Friedman in Marin Country, Calif., I was given a bracelet too. It came in a gray linen pouch and was accompanied by a little booklet outlining the company’s core values, as well as “The Resto Rules.” Friedman wrote these statements himself, a fact he is proud of. “vision is everything: We believe Vision leads the leader” . . . “no school for cool: We believe in being cool. We believe you’re either cool or you’re not. To be cool, you have to do cool things. We believe cool has to come from within. There is no School for Cool.”